We went and took a lesson with Sally at Kealani Farms in West Grove on Saturday. First off that farm is magnificant. I wanted to stay there! It was that nice. The arena was lovely, the footing was wonderful. Definitely a nice place to take a lesson!
And as we unloaded there were some NICE horses there. I felt a bit out of water at first due to Remus being so scruffy and all these gorgeous thoroughbreds in the ring with me. But I should not have worried. Remus soon endeared himself to all. One person thought he was a connemara which I have had others say so that was funny. He was a very very good boy too!
I hadn’t jumped besides a log or two at the paper chases in a while so I wasn’t sure how rusty we would be. But we ‘jumped’ right into it (get it?) and started out. I was paired with a lovely bay tbred with a very nice lady on him. She was bringing him back from illness so was starting lower (he was totally capable of jumping a lot bigger but I appreciate the care Sally and the owner are taking to make sure the horse gets back to speed correctly).
We started over a pole with some filler underneath. They weren’t set as high as usual in my mind but as I told Sally if I ever tell her something is too low she better take my temperature. Ha. But i think she had them lower for Gina and her horse. And it was fine since we had the term MORE MORE MORE PUSH HIM FORWARD MORE used more than a few times!
So we worked on strides and pacing which if you know me at all, you know I don’t know how to do either of those very well LOL! Poor Sally had me balls to the walls on a couple lines. But we got it. Remus started out a bit not meeting the jumps completely correct so it took a couple tries before we started figuring out how to jump again. But Remus went over everything we pointed him at including a spooky oxer and a spooky flower box. Gina had some trouble with her horse on those two so I felt a bit more like I belonged in the arena with everyone else (yes i have a inferiority complex ).
After we jumped a while she strung together a course. I was having the toughest time figure out a bending line. Like I am just not built for those. But I guess we got it okay because then she started us doing a straight line over the spooky oxer to vertical and she had me push Remus for more speed. Um. We don’t do speed so mostly what we do is I press him he puts his ears back and maybe speeds up a second or two. We did get the five a few times which I am amazed because our strides compared to the 16 plus hands in the ring with us, are NOT that big. So I am kind of happy the jumps were not huge since we would have had rails the way we were rushing around! I get the concept but jeez Remus and I going fast, make us have the tendency to dive the jumps (BOTH OF US). Le sigh.
Sally seemed pretty happy how we were going (I know I am very hard on myself and Remus when jumping) and it was a great lesson with a great group of people. Remus was exhausted when we got done (he gets clipped today thank goodness some of that hair has to go!). I stood and watched the next lesson (the jumps went WAY up for this one LOL) and took some photos and let Remus just chill (which he did nicely).
The person who went after me had a cute jump-aholic bay horse. And the best clip of all. See below! I was so in awe I left Remus standing there and ran to take a photo of it. HA Loved it!
I ended bailing on Sarah for riding on Sunday though I was beat up feeling and I was a bit worried to push Remus too hard (He has a bruise on his sole that my farrier told me about and he is sound but I would rather it heal up before pushing it too much and it was a lot of pounding on Saturday). However, it was a great weekend and the weather was not bad at all so I will take it December! Hope everyone else had a great weekend.
Fat Buckskin in a Little Suit 
Monday’s always come around way too fast, but especially after an amazing horsey weekend
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I swear there are more Sunday nights than any other of the week where I am staring down an entire work week before freedom hits again. Sounds like a great lesson and what a gorgeous barn.
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Omg i has a lesson with Sally too this weekend!! Can’t wait until she comes back in Jan.
I love love love riding with her. She’s a really good confident teacher.
Also how does this Monday thing keep happening no matter what i do.
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I saw she had lessons elsewhere. Where did you have a lesson 🙂 She really is a great teacher! I can’t recommend her enough!
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Lucky me, she comes right to my farm 😁
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Are you in NJ? I know she goes over there. LOL SPOILED MUCH? 🙂 (Tho to be fair it was about 15 minute haul to her this weekend :))
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It’s probably a good thing we didn’t ride. My back was a mess by afternoon/evening and I could barely walk the pain was so bad. So yeah. Good call.
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ohh no i hope you get to rest up while you are away! 🙂
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oooh what a nice farm! glad you got to have a lesson… i say this every time you write about riding with Sally but one day i will do so as well! maybe soon, now that charles is getting back into action 😀
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Yay! Sounds like an awesome lesson! I know the feeling. I can’t believe it’s already Monday either 😭
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Sounds like a great lesson! I know that I sometimes don’t like being pushed from my comfort zone- but seems like you handled it like a champ. and OMG that is the funniest gif ever, and I’m obsessed with that horse’s clip! You should do something like that on Remus!
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I would totally have done something like that but alas Jess is holding my guy today (STUPID WORK PROJECT) so I dont dare ask for extra 🙂 HA! HA HA (And yes that gif)
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Glad you had a good lesson! And way to show those TBs how to jump spooky stuff…now if you’d kindly come down to NC and show P, I’d be much obliged 🙂
And yeah. This Monday totally feels like it’s been a week.
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ha it looks like P KNOWS how to jump all the stuff now!! YAY
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MORE. GO FASTER is pretty much the entire story of me over fences. Always and forever trying to go faster… LOL
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That clip job tho! I’m grateful you got a photo. Also giggled a good bit about Remus just hanging out without being held. God I love a horse that does that!
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I know, I love him. He truly is like having a kid’s horse at my disposal. LOL I probably trust him TOO much. (To be fair he was tired by then and wasnt going anywhere, and was sure the barn owner had treats!) I may have squealed aloud when I saw that Minion clip….:)
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That clip is just the best! I love when people put creative clips on their horses. It just makes everything more fun! Now I’m thinking of what I might stick on Scarlet’s butt if I ever fully clip him. XD
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sounds like a fun time! glad you enjoyed the clinic and i love the creative clip job!
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